Rare Empire Cast Interview Surfaces

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Rare Empire Cast Interview Surfaces

On the heels of the recent early Mark Hamill interview we discovered a couple weeks ago, starwars.com contributor Bob Miller sends a heads up on another rare interview – or set of interviews – from a press junket surrounding the 1980 release of The Empire Strikes Back.

Recently posted from the archive of reporter Bobbie Wygant, this lost interview, which appears to have occurred at the 20th Century Fox Studios press event in early May, 1980, includes some rare conversations with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Dave Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, and director Irvin Kershner.

Some of the highlights include Hamill discussing his newborn son, Nathan, who he jokes might be available for the role of an “eight-year-old” Luke for the prequels (well, he got the age right, but was a generation off!). Another treat is the rare dual interview with Harrison Ford and Anthony Daniels, who we’ve rarely seen interviewed together. Dave Prowse also has some detailed information regarding the Darth Vader masks used on Star Wars and Empire, and how they are different (Vader historians take note!).

Most amusingly, though, interviewer Wygant closes with the tease that if Lucas continues with all nine chapters of his Star Wars saga, “the Force may be around until 2001!”

Check out the 13-minute video, STILL online 13 years later